Netanyahu said to request state funding for waterproofing work at Caesarea home
Source in PM’s office argues that without upgrade, dampness in the winter months could harm premier’s health; office’s legal adviser, accountant said opposed
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put in a request for state funding to cover waterproofing at his family’s Caesarea home, the Ynet news site reported on Monday, reigniting the debate around what could be considered necessary maintenance — and therefore eligible for state funding — versus renovations to improve and upgrade the home.
Expenses incurred from maintenance work to the prime minister’s private residence are covered by the state treasury if the renovations are found to be necessary to the prime minister’s ability to adequately carry out their work. If this is not the case, then the renovations are considered an improvement to the home, and the premier is responsible for covering the cost.
According to Ynet, Netanyahu and his family believe that upgrading the home’s waterproofing should be covered by the state, while both the legal adviser and the accountant at the Prime Minister’s Office have argued that the work is a non-vital improvement to the property.
The waterproofing of the Caesarea home is an “issue that has been unfolding for years,” an unnamed source in the PMO told Ynet. “But now we have reached ‘money time’ because it needs to be fixed before the winter.
“When there is no sealant, water can get in, it dampens the floor and then, God forbid, the prime minister could slip,” the source said, explaining why the state was being asked to cover the cost.
The dampness was mainly around the windows of the home, the source said, and the work “is about maintenance and not improvement.”
Should a request for state funding be approved, the PMO director general would then be required to provide the treasury with an estimated cost of the project.
A report on Channel 12 on Sunday evening suggested that the cost of the work could be as high as NIS 600,000 ($160,000), although this was denied by the Prime Minister’s Office, which said that no contractor had been contacted to offer a quote at this stage, but that the cost was estimated at somewhere between NIS 50,000 and 100,000 ($13,000-$26,000).
In response to Ynet, the PMO reiterated that “the state treasury bears all the expenses required in the prime minister’s residence for operation and maintenance that isn’t an improvement.
“Recently, the office contacted a consultant to get an opinion regarding leaks and dampness in the Caesarea residence. A plan of action in this regard has not yet been determined,” the PMO said.
The Netanyahu family home has frequently made headlines due to expensive repairs — argued by some to have been unnecessary — that have been shouldered by the state over the years.
In January of this year, amid the still-ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, the PMO was reported to have approved repairs to the swimming pool at the Caesarea residence. The Finance Ministry said at the time that the request for the work had been submitted prior to October 7, and involved fixing the pool’s steps and some leaks.
The prime minister has often been criticized for what is perceived as excessive spending on a lavish lifestyle, an argument that was amplified by the wartime swimming pool repairs. One of the three corruption charges against him revolves around lavish gifts he allegedly received illicitly from billionaire benefactors.
The war against Hamas in Gaza, which began with the shock terror onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, has cost Israel more than NIS 80 billion ($21.5 billion) over the last ten months, and the government has been criticized for making only moderate spending cuts while leaving billions of shekels in discretionary funds available for use on non-urgent projects.
Netanyahu’s wife Sara has also long faced allegations of extravagant living, and state comptroller reports have found she repeatedly tried to get funding for the couple’s private residence, including one instance when she purchased furniture, apparently for the official residence in Jerusalem, and then moved it to the Netanyahus’ private residence in Caesarea, while older furniture was taken from Caesarea to the residence in Jerusalem.
